Texas teacher tells kindergartners Santa isn’t real

Kindergarten is a blissful time when life is all about finger painting, skipping rope, zipping down park slides and, of course, believing in Santa. Not the case for a group of 5-years-olds at a public school in Austin, Texas. The students’ teacher—who just might be the world’s Grinchiest Grinch—decided to tell her students that the man in a red suit is a fake. Suddenly, these kids were robbed of one of the great joys of childhood.

Late last week, a five-year-old girl came home from Austin’s Pease Elementary school with a question for her dad.

“Daddy,” she asked her father, “Is Santa real?”

Dad said yes, and wanted to know why his daughter asked.

“Because Mrs. Fuller” — the girl’s afters-chool teacher — “said he wasn’t real. She said ‘None of you believe in Santa do you?’ and said that you and mommy buy all our presents and put them under the tree. She said that you should tell us the truth.”

The girl’s parents were upset, especially since their daughter attended a Waldorf preschool that encouraged kids to believe in magical things like fairies. The parents felt that the teacher was wrong in pressing her beliefs on the students. They complained to the principal who reprimanded the teacher.

Now, some parents (who I can’t help but call self-righteous) opt to tell their kids that Santa isn’t real from the start. They believe that lying to a child breaks a child’s trust, so instead they tell the “truth.” To that I say—Bah humbug! Kids enjoy believing in magical things. Believing in Santa, leaving the cookies for his reindeer and waking up to an overstuffed stocking, is a fun part of childhood. Regardless, it’s a parent’s choice (not a teacher’s). I just wish these parents who tell their kids that Santa is a fake would also tell their children to keep quiet at school.

My daughter, as an 8-year-old third-grader, found out the truth about Santa from a classmate last year. She asked me if her friend was telling the truth. My response? “You can believe what you want to believe but it’s a lot more fun to believe in Santa.”